Android P May Include Native Call Recording Support

February 7, 2018

Usually, Android users take the help of third-party applications to record calls on their devices. But, the recent commits made to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) suggests that the native call recording feature could come to mobiles with Android P which is the next version of the current Android os.

Call recording feature isn’t entirely new to Android devices such as One Plus, Samsung, Xiomi, and Asus. However, it was a kind of proprietary functionality offered by those companies and wasn’t available to all the Android users. And apparently, Google is likely to eliminate the problem by integrating the call recording functionality in Android P. Android P is the successor of current Android os and is likely to be announced at the Google I/O Conference to be held later this year.

This became evident after a code was spotted referring to “call recording tone” in the commits which were available on the AOSP site since February 2. Also, the code reveals a support for 1400Hz frequency tone which repeats every 15 seconds to intimate the opposite person on the phone about the recording.

“The tone itself is said to be of the 1,400Hz variety, meaning people of all ages should be able to hear it without any issues, with one of the commits referring to it revealing that it’s meant to be played every 15 seconds while the conversation is being recorded, presumably as to remind the person who didn’t initiate the recording that it’s still participating in one,” the report says.

The report also states that frequency tone will “meet regulatory compliance requirements”. Also, the functionality can be subjected to local regulations and disabled by the carriers if they wish to.

“Adding carrier configuration option to specify whether the carrier requires the incall recording tone be played,” says information available on one of the commits.

Currently, there is no proof that the call recording functionality will be available as APIs (application programming interface) to app developers who wish to integrate the feature. However, this native Android P feature will likely to work with recording apps after getting the required permissions, as noted in the commits.